Centrist Party Defeats Portugal Socialists In Election

LISBON, PORTUGAL — The centrist Social Democratic Party on Sunday defeated the Socialist Party of Premier Mario Soares in Portugal`s parliamentary elections.

But the election appeared likely to leave the country with a minority government and continued political instability. Such a government would require an agreement with at least some of the opposition parties in order to push anything through parliament.

With nearly all of the votes tallied, the Social Democrats, led by Anibal Cavaco Silva, had slightly more than 30 percent and were declared the winners by the state-owned television.

The center-left Socialists had less than 21 percent of the vote, a sharp decline from the 36 percent won by the party in elections two years ago.

Soares did not seek another term as premier and plans to run in January for president, a position in which he would be involved more with long-term national policy than with direct administration.

The Socialists were hurt in Sunday`s voting by their economic policies, which resolved a foreign debt crisis through austerity but brought on a recession--the unemployment rate exceeds 10 percent--and high inflation.

The biggest surprise in the voting was the strong showing by a hastily organized group, the Democratic Renewal Party, which had 17 percent of the vote. The party, a populist group with no well-defined ideology, is laying the groundwork for President Antonio Ramalho Eanes to run someday for premier. The president is prohibited from being a candidate or campaigning while in office. The Communist Party appeared to be on its way to a fourth-place finish with about 15 percent of the vote.